How to use PowerShell to refresh a dev database from backup of prod

Question

We are using DDBoost to backup and restore SQL Server databases.

Now we want to create a script or a job, so developers can kick off the script or the job to refresh their dev databases without asking a DBA.

I know in SQL Server Management Studio we can't take input in Job so I want to create a script with T-SQL or CLI or Powershell to take inputs like SourceDB, TargetDB and then refresh a dev database using with the parameters.

I know how to take input in PowerShell so if someone can tell how to do it either by:

• using powershell to restore from DDBoost
• passing the values from PowerShell to T-SQL or CLI
• any other option in SQL Server management Studio.

Please help me setting it up.

Thanks and regards in advance.

Shoaib

Answer 1

I'm going to ignore the fact about DDBoost, because I don't know it.

But I know about dbatools.io , which is very solid powershell module that does exactly what you are looking for. It can with one line of powershell restore an entire database. You can make it as simple or advanced as you want.

Prerequisites:

1. A working SQL Server backup file. This can be created from SQL Server Management Studio or dbatools.io
2. A SQL Server
3. The executing user needs privileges to restore the database.
4. Install dbatools

Installation

Start PowerShell (Run As Administrator)

Install-Module dbatools

Backup database

Here I'll show how you can backup a database using dbatools.

Backup-DbaDatabase -SqlInstance servername -Database databasename -BackupDirectory C:\Temp -CompressBackup

Restore database

Here I'll show how you can restore a database using dbatools.

Restore-DbaDatabase -SqlInstance servername -DatabaseName databasename -Path C:\Temp\filename.bak -WithReplace -useDestinationDefaultDirectories -ReplaceDbNameInFile

The restore script instructs the SQL Server to overwrite any existing database. It will restore the database files into the folders that are configured inside the SQL Server configuration and it will replace the database name in the physical files.